Join The Wheat Family

Leaders Urge Congress to Fund Government, Pass Farm Bill

October 1, 2013

A statement from National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) President Bing Von Bergen, a wheat farmer and seedsman from near Moccasin, Mont.:

“For the second year in a row, we have watched as our legislators let the farm bill expire without an extension or a new law in place. This year’s expiration is doubly concerning because our leaders have also failed to approve a new budget, shutting the federal government down wholesale until a compromise can be reached.

“I know I join my fellow farm leaders and my fellow wheat growers when I say that enough is enough. Funding the government is the basic charge of Congress, and policymaking on farm and nutrition policy impacts direct stakeholders and our economy as a whole.

“Two years running, wheat farmers are planting their next year’s crop without knowing what farm programs will exist by the time they harvest or how vital research, trade promotion and conservation programs will be funded while there is no farm law at all. Maneuvering around this level of uncertainty is no way to run a farm, and creating this level of uncertainty is no way to run a country. We call on our agriculture leaders and, more importantly, our leaders in the full House and Senate to move past regionalism and partisanship and get their jobs done.”

###

Contact for comment:

Brooke Shupe, director of government affairs for risk management, bshupe@wheatworld.org